A lot can happen in a day, especially a sunny day in Western Washington. Residents here see the nice weather and take advantage of it - quickly - knowing that blue skies are usually a fleeting dream. There is a feeling that outdoor activities need to be crammed into one day, because tomorrow will probably rain. It's not just me; most people from this region do the same exact thing! We've had a good run of pleasant weather the last few days (turned to drizzle at the time of this writing), so the opportunity to get out on a bike is overwhelming. The result was a bike ride...and then some.On April 8th I got off work a couple hours early and loaded up the bikes in the truck. David and I headed to Seattle's I-5 Colonnade Park, which sports a series of tricky bike tracks built underneath Interstate 5. Crafted and maintained entirely by volunteers, there are urban trail rides there for every skill level. While it embodies many of the extreme varieties of riding that exist on the West Coast (some of which got their start right here in the PNW), the park itself is an anomaly - possibly one of a kind for land use in a city that is more or less built to the hilt. Plus it's dry riding year `round, thanks to the freeway overhead! Check out the Google Slide Show for some detail shots.
Once we arrived with our bikes David surveyed the entire park initially and then focused on two areas - a round track with a bunch of bumps and high banks, and a small track in the middle where he could ride a jump. After nearly two hours of riding - plus a dusty dump that dropped David on both knees - we were done for the day. We sat out the pain for a bit; I asked him if he needed any Grape Guys (our nickname for Children's Acetaminophen), but he said, "No I don't need any." We walked up out of the park (read as Daddy pushed his own bike up the hill and carried David's bike on his shoulder), and loaded up the truck. Since we were in Seattle, I knew it was only a matter of time before I heard the next question: "Dad, can we go look for trains?"
How can I resist? So we headed through the city to SODO, our favorite place for trains of all kinds. We got David the KFC Popcorn Chicken that he loves so much and then hung out by the tracks along 3rd Avenue S at Holgate. On stage for us were commuter trains, Amtrak Cascades, and freight trains a-plenty. An unusual site was a short train hauling the special cars that carry Boeing jet bodies between the Midwest and Seattle. I explained to him that those particular cars once ran through Bellevue on their way south to Renton, but that now it runs through Seattle instead. SODO is very very urban, right down to the ratty motor homes and random garbage. But one urban cornerstone, graffiti, also has a home here on the Seattle Legal Wall - a place where taggers can paint with no harm and no foul.
All this gritty sightseeing was beginning to make me hungry, so we headed towards a Burger King. I decided to take a picture of the sign at By's Burgers on 4th Avenue, and lamented that I wished they were open.
"But Dad...they are open. It says 10 to 8."
Well now. So in one stop I got my fish & chips plus pictures of the By's sign and it's neighbor sign at Elephant Car Wash. Then it was off to Harbor Island to look for more trains. After hanging out along the Duwamish River for a while - not seeing any trains coming - David asked to see West Seattle. So we drove along Alki, which only proved the point that Seattleites get outside in earnest on nice days; the sidewalks and parking spots were packed. Check out the YouTube Video of our experience.
Considering I had worked that day - and that the rest of La Familia had woken up in beds 100 miles away at Birch Bay - David and I accomplished quite a lot. We'll do it again. Oh yes...we'll most definitely do it again. Anyone like to join us?
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